It's difficult to recall startup companies that had as much effect in the corporate travel industry in such a time as Spotnana, the technology company that, just a little more than two short years since its founding, has landed high-profile partnerships, developed solutions and formed the tech backbone for other new entrants. Spotnana's unique product offering, featuring multi-source content aggregation, booking and reporting and policy management, has allowed it to carve a unique role in the industry. The moves it has made in 2023, under the leadership of founder and CEO Sarosh Waghmar, further has cemented its industry position.
Rare is the news cycle that doesn't have word of a new Spotnana partnership or feature. This year, it partnered with Southwest Airlines, connecting with the carrier's API to make available its content and servicing ability. It integrated with International SOS to provide real-time booking and trip modification data for traveler tracking. It partnered with Lufthansa—an investor—for New Distribution Capability content. It developed a way to allow travelers to self-serve cross exchanges for EDIFACT and NDC tickets. It partnered with a carbon-capture provider for purchased offsets and partnered with rail booking firms to add that content. And so on.
Three moves, in particular, perhaps most exemplify Waghmar and Spotnana's growing and distinctive presence in the industry. Corporate travel industry veteran Mark Walton in March announced the launch of Solutions Travel, a new ARC-accredited travel management company built on Spotnana's tech stack and supporting 24/7 global bookings via chat, email or phone; real-time integrated global data; direct content sources; NDC integration; and an open API platform that can integrate with client-preferred systems.
Even though Spotnana can serve as a TMC itself, Waghmar at the time told BTN he would look for TMCs with which to collaborate, rather than compete. "We're just behind the scenes, empowering Solutions Travel," he told BTN sibling publication The Beat. Solutions wasn't the only new entity brought to market on Spotnana's architecture: South Africa-based ticketing agency Ticketpro also did so, launching a TMC called Ticketpro Travel Solutions.
Spotnana can work with legacy providers and not just new entrants, the company showed this year with its partnership with mega TMC CWT, set to power an offering that leans on Spotnana tech. While that relationship continues to evolve, the signal from a major legacy TMC that it is willing to tap a solution outside of global distribution systems for content could herald a key step in distribution.
The partnership already has some results, as the companies are working together to serve Walmart, which is piloting Spotnana with a group of U.S. travelers and plans to roll out the corporate travel tech platform more broadly.
The third development, on the other hand, allows small and midsize businesses that primarily do business in Australia to bypass bringing on a TMC provider altogether. Qantas has used the Spotnana platform to power an SMB-oriented booking tool that includes hotel and car rental content and offers a data reporting suite that enables Qantas to "become the travel management company itself," according to Waghmar. While Qantas occupies a unique market position in Australia, the development looks like a power move that other carriers—and the managed travel industry—should watch closely as more airlines move to bring business travel bookings direct.
Waghmar in a blog post this summer cited Spotnana's work to build "a global travel platform," which includes "a single global instance of our platform for each customer." It seems to be on its way.